recoiljunky,
"But nine times out of ten those that are doing the 'sighting in' would like some advice instead of being snickered at behind their backs."
That has NOT been my experience at public ranges. While some do, most others can get pretty huffy even at a polite inquiry. (But I don't snicker at them. I just let them do their thing, and I do mine.)
A private range is a different deal. Helped out quite a few at different private ranges, including the one I had for 8 years, and the one mentioned belonging to a good friend.
BUT in the instance described, the guy and his son were complete strangers to me--and when I told my friend about it later, they were to him as well.
Turned out one of his other friends (a guy I also knew who worked part-time for the county sheriff's department) had announced to the rest of the guys in the department that the range was open to anybody. Whereupon a steady stream of people my friend did NOT know started using his range. Which resulted in things like fenceposts being shot to pieces, and a few other incidents.
My friend was VERY interested to hear about this (especially the fencepost) when I phoned him that evening, and informed his "generous" buddy informed that the range was NOT open to everybody,. My friend put a couple of steel fenceposts in the middle of the turnoff to the range, with a sign that said, "Shooting with permission only," and gave his phone number. After that I was the ONLY person allowed to use the range without calling and asking.
Well maybe around Bozeman a public range is loaded with [bleep], but where I come from on the other side of the Madison and Gravelly ranges and here in NW Colorado, the public range users are pretty ok especially if you show interest in what they're shooting.
RJ
